At around 5am on April 20, 1995, a group of about 300-armed Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels allegedly raided Atiak Trading Centre, Atiak Sub-county in the current Amuru District.
The rebels, allegedly led by its former deputy chief Vincent Otti, rounded up hundreds of unarmed civilians before executing some of them.
The civilians were accused by the rebels of refusing to support the liberation struggle to oust President Museveni.
The attack left at least 200 people dead, including 40 students of Atiak Technical School.
The rebels also abducted dozens of young people to carry the loot and forcefully recruited them as fighters and sex slaves.
Three decades later, some of the survivors are still carrying shrapnel, bomb splinters, burns, and painful scars, as well as grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder, after losing their loved ones during the bloody attack.
Although Ms Beatrice Arach was 40km away from the scene, she still carries a fresh memory of the incident that claimed the lives of her relatives and friends.
‘At that time, I was a student at Sacred Heart Secondary School (in the current Gulu City) when the rebels raided the trading centre and killed many people, including my own relatives,’ she recalled.
Whereas Ms Arach’s mother, Judith Auma, a renowned midwife and a ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party political mobiliser at the time, survived, she and her husband, Mzee Burimwaka Misaki (former police officer and farmer) from Atiak Sub-county, were reportedly key targets in the attack.
She said Auma was previously invited for an urgent meeting in Gulu Town to resolve a family matter before the rebels struck the area.
The invitation saved Ms Arach’s mother’s life. ‘The rebels looted my mother’s clinic. They later attacked other homes and shops within the trading centre. My uncles’ children were also killed in the process. Other relatives were abducted and taken to the bush.’
Ms Arach’s son survived narrowly after one of the rebels’ fighters inquired about his skin colour.
‘The rebels inquired about her whereabouts before they swept through the trading centre; my son’s skin complexion became a subject of interest for the rebels. He had light skin, and the rebels spared him,’ she said.
Atiak, now a booming trading centre, lies on the Gulu-Nimule Highway located approximately 40km, North of Gulu City.
‘We learnt about the tragic incident in the morning. Although there were reports that the rebels were planning to raid the training centre, there was no concrete evidence. So, everyone was caught off guard,’ Ms Arach added.
After the massacre, Ms Arach’s mother turned to grassroots politics. ‘My mother became one of the strongest political mobilisers in Amuru District. She wanted women to get their voice heard by participating in politics and change policies that are against their agenda.’
At one point, Auma met President Museveni and then Vice President Dr Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, who visited the massacre scene and also started helping the fear-stricken community to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack.
However, after 31 years, whereas Ms Arach still believes her son and mother were spared by the rebels by a stroke of luck, she is yet to heal from the scars. She added that President Museveni’s pledges to her family have not materialised, more than a decade later.
‘My father was the police officer in charge of the police training school in Masindi and a very close friend to the President. At one point, the President promised to support his family with a tractor and other farming equipment in appreciation for his role in the liberation struggle,’ she recounted.
Her support for the NRM party as one of the key mobilisers in the region alongside then State minister for Northern Uganda Betty Bigombe put her life and that of her family at risk because majority of the northern population was against the government. ‘Once they failed to find my mother, who had travelled to Gulu, the rebels brutally killed my maternal grandmother, Paula Oyella Olaa.’
At the funeral of the late Oyella, a few days after the massacre, then Vice President Kazibwe represented Mr Museveni, during which a pledge of farming equipment, among others, was made.
‘My parents had high hopes for these pledges and entrusted that the follow-up should continue even after their death. However, being a first-born to both my parents, ever since I lost them, I have always asked myself, will the President clear the unfulfilled pledges, or will he continue to fulfil pledges even when he retires?’ Ms Arach wondered.
Just like Ms Arach, who has been struggling to cope with her family loss, Mr Nelson Okello, one of the survivors now living in Atiak Town Council, said he has been nursing pains after a splinter got lodged on the left side of his head for three decades.
‘I don’t know how I survived, but God saved me that day. But my challenge has been how to get specialised medical treatment. If the doctors can remove the piece of metal from my head, I will have peace,’ he stated.
Appeal to the government
The survivors who spoke to Daily Monitor are urging the government to facilitate their specialised medical treatment, such as skin grafting and psychosocial support, and also call for economic support to support their full recovery and normal life.
Mr Fred Okot, the chairperson of the Atiak Massacre Survivors’ Association (AMSA), said survivors need grants and livestock so that they can become self-sufficient.
‘We no longer need food aid. We want oxen, ox-ploughs, goats, cattle and capital for economic empowerment. Some of my members need urgent medical support because they still have splinters and bomb fragments in their bodies. Others are now old and need to keep animals,’ Mr Okot noted.
He said some of the survivors are now old and need to be supported: ‘We need to support them. We need to support their children with technical skills so that they can live independently.’
In April 2011, President Museveni pledged Shs50 million to the survivors to help them become self-sufficient. He also pledged to support Atiak Technical Institute with a new truck to aid their transport.
While this Shs50 million pledge was fulfilled in October 2013 for the 200 AMSA members, Mr Gilbert Olanya, the Kilak County MP, has for a long time noted that individuals who survived the massacre are still living with scars and other war-related injuries.
Mr Olanya said if the central government had equipped all the health facilities in the Acholi Sub-region with specialists and modern medical equipment as part of the response to the recovery process, the survivors would not have carried the burden for this long which had sometimes led to stigma and suicide due to depression.
‘The government should build special clinics in Acholi Sub-region so that the individuals with bullet wounds and other injuries who have been impoverished by the war do not have to travel long distances to access such specialised services,’ Dr Olanya noted.
According to Foundation for Justice and Development Initiatives (FJDI), a local Gulu-based NGO working with war survivors, the majority of the survivors are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Mr Norbert Dacan, the head of office at FJDI, said some of the survivors have since died due to natural causes and the injuries they sustained during the attack. He said many years have gone by without the survivors receiving specialised treatment for their injuries or receiving financial aid.
‘Each of the survivors needs about Shs5 million for him or her to engage in meaningful activity. He or she needs a boda boda to generate money to pay for medical bills and school fees,’ he noted.
Mr Dacan added that although President Museveni gave the survivors Shs50 million, the money was not enough.
‘If they are to divide the money, each person would get only Shs25,000. That money cannot do much. It cannot help them to recover from their trauma, nor can it make them acquire a walking tractor to open up a 10-acre piece of land for cultivation,’ he stressed, saying each survivor should get at least Shs5 million, including those who are not AMSA members.
It is estimated that there are 3,000 survivors of the 1995 LRA massacre, although some have died over the years. By press time, the government and local authorities have yet to establish the actual number of survivors who are still alive.
Mr Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, the Amuru resident district commissioner (RDC), said the government is doing everything to support the survivors and their households recover from the traumatic experience.
He cited the Shs50 million support to survivors and Shs200 million towards the rehabilitation of Atiak Technical School.
The RDC added that some of the survivors who qualify benefited from the Parish Development Model (PDM) and other government-funded programmes so that they can rebuild their lives as well as join the money economy.
About the massacre
The 1995 attack by LRA rebels left at least 200 people dead, including 40 students of Atiak Technical School.
The rebels also abducted dozens of young people to carry the loot and forcefully recruited them as fighters and sex slaves. There were about 3,000 survivors, including Ms Beatrice Arach.